Man sentenced to life for killing man, shooting and pistol whipping the man’s mother in Catawba Co.

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) – A choose has sentenced a person to daily life in prison for killing a man and capturing the man’s mother in Catawba County in 2018.

A Catawba County jury identified 41-year-previous Scott Anthony Putnam guilty of to start with-diploma murder in the July 24, 2018, taking pictures loss of life of 24-yr-outdated Anthony Andrew Killian at the victim’s Conover household.

The jury also observed Putnam responsible of two counts of attempted very first-degree murder, assault with a lethal weapon inflicting critical injury and assault with a fatal weapon with intent to destroy for assaults on Killian’s dad and mom.

The Honorable J. Thomas Davis, Excellent Courtroom Judge from Rutherford County, imposed a lifetime sentence without parole for Putnam next the jury’s verdict on the 1st-diploma murder cost that arrived after considerably less than 5 hrs of deliberations.

Decide Davis also gave Putnam two sentences of roughly 20 to 25 many years each for the tried murder and assault costs. Each of these conditions will be served consecutively to the existence sentence.

The demo commenced on Monday, March 14, 2022.

Courtroom information say evidence showed that Putnam went to the Killians’ house with a revolver all over 10 p.m. on July 24, 2018, and knocked on the door of their mobile household.

Related: ‘Dangerous’ gunman accused in lethal Catawba Co. capturing captured

The mom answered, and when Anthony came to the door, court records say Putnam shot him in the remaining cheek with the revolver.

As he stumbled via the residence, court docket data say Anthony Killian was shot four additional moments by Putnam who also shot the mom in the arm and strike her in the confront with the revolver.

Courtroom documents say Anthony Killian collapsed into his father’s arms and slumped to the flooring.

The father struggled to get the weapon from Putnam, but courtroom information say Putnam pointed the gun barrel at the father’s eye. Putnam pulled the cause two times but was out of bullets.

Just before he still left the cellular property, court docket information say Putnam paused and explained to the father to be happy he was out of bullets. He then left the home, threw the revolver into a wooded region, changed dresses from a bag that experienced been packed and hid until finally the pursuing morning when he was arrested.

The autopsy report showed that Anthony Killian died from gunshot wounds to the head, arm, upper body and back.

Courtroom data say Putnam alleged that Anthony Killian had sexually assaulted one particular of his daughters, and he went to confront him about it, although there had been no definitive proof to exhibit that to be the situation.

Putnam testified that he uncovered the gun employed in the shooting beneath his porch the exact same working day of the capturing and that he walked a lot more than a mile via a darkish wooded spot to reach the Killian dwelling.

Putnam admitted on the stand that he pointed the gun and pulled the result in to shoot Anthony Killian but later on stated he did so accidentally, professing the target reached for the gun when it was tucked in the waistband of his trousers. He reported he did not don’t forget shooting or hitting the mom nor did he recall pointing the gun at the father.

In his closing remarks to the jury, the protection attorney pointed to that allegation along with the point that his client experienced been ingesting, was not getting his prescribed medicine and was coping with his have individual experiences from lots of yrs back. He argued that his shopper may possibly have been guilty of voluntary manslaughter but not very first-diploma murder or tried murder.

“I’m not up in this article to make excuses for Scott’s habits. I’m not up right here stating he’s harmless. I’m not up below expressing he doesn’t ought to have punishment … We do not take a posture that he really should walk absent from this,” Protection Attorney Scott Matthews reported, introducing, “This is not a who did what. This is a why. The why is equally as essential as who or what … He misplaced it. He just shed it.”

Chief Assistant District Attorney Lance Sigmon concentrated on the accountability of the defendant and his exhibition of vigilante justice, noting that two months prior to the deadly shooting that Putnam had advised Jaclyn Flowe of the Catawba County Section of Social Providers that he wished to “hurt Anthony.” He also noticed that Anthony Killian’s moms and dads have been completely innocent in the functions that unfolded that night time.

“We do not, as a culture, consider obligation for points we do any longer. We check out to make excuses and lessen the punishment we’re entitled to (get). This defendant appointed himself judge, jury and executioner with out ever offering Anthony a probability to protect himself,” Sigmon informed the jury. “He was likely to choose the legislation into his possess palms. He resolved to enact his have sort of vigilante justice.

“Now is the time to hold him accountable. This defendant is not earlier mentioned the regulation. He knew what he was performing was erroneous.”

Kerry Penley and Michael Hoyle led the investigation for the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant District Attorneys Lance Sigmon and Howard Wellons prosecuted the circumstance for the State.

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